Seniors may be kicked out of homes
Elderly people could be moved from public housing to smaller units under a plan to be debated by the Liberal Party State Council in Victoria later this week.
The state motion, to be brought before the council this weekend, suggests older residents who occupy large blocks of land should subdivide their large blocks in exchange for a new unit within their original piece of land.
Council on the Ageing Victoria chief executive officer, Sue Hendy, said she initially believed that the proposal, if passed, was insensitive to elderly residents and was “not a good idea”.
“This sounds like a way to shoehorn people into smaller places to create more land,” Ms Hendy said.
However, she informed DPS Publishing that she spoke to the Minister for Housing yesterday (Monday, 23 May 2011), and said that the proposal is for a feasibility study of public housing properties that are either uninhabitable or to be destroyed, to be better used for housing older people.
“This proposal has merit for older people who are in need of public housing, as the waiting list is too long, and older people are living on the street. We would support this action,” she told DPS Publishing.
The motion will discuss “the potential level of interest amongst older people with existing large blocks of land to further subdivide their large blocks of land in exchange for the ‘free’ acquirement of a new unit within their original piece of land”.
Two years ago, the Herald Sun revealed pensioners were being forced from homes they had lived in for decades so the former Brumby government could cash in on their rising value.
A government spokeswoman yesterday told The Age newspaper: “As part of an ongoing review of the older stock program, the Coalition Government is looking at better ways to utilise older stock more effectively.”
